January 30, 2004
About Mustafa Akyol
Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish Muslim writer and columnist based in Istanbul, Turkey. (In Turkish "Akyol" literally means "the white path," hence the name of this website.)
Akyol was born in Ankara in 1972 and had his early education there. Later he graduated from Istanbul Nisantasi British High School and from the International Relations Department of the Bosphorus University. He had his master thesis on the Kurdish question at the History Department of the same university. He has given seminars in several universities in the U.S. and the U.K. on issues relating to Islam and modernity.
Since 2002, he has been working as a columnist and editor in the Turkish press. He is currently the opinion editor and a columnist for Turkish Daily News, Turkey's foremost English-language daily. He also writes a regular column for the Turkish national daily, Star.
Akyol's articles have also appeared on other publications such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, International Herald Tribune, The American Interest, First Things, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Times, The American Enterprise Magazine , National Review Online, The Forward, Tech Central Station, FrontPage Magazine and IslamOnline.
Mustafa Akyol has a book in Turkish titled Rethinking The Kurdish Question: What Went Wrong? What Next? (Doğan Publishing, 2006) which has received praise from many prominent Turkish intellectuals. He is currently working on a book in English on the future of Islam and the Islamic world.
You can also visit Akyol's website in Turkish.
Some Comments on Mustafa Akyol's Work
“The [Turkish] secular establishment's suspicions about the AK are best described by Turkish columnist Mustafa Akyol as "fact-free paranoia.”
— Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek
“Mustafa Akyol, a bright young columnist for the English-language Turkish Daily News, makes a very convincing case…”
— Jay Tolson in US News & World Report
“Mr Akyol, an advocate of reconciliation between Muslims and the West who is much in demand at conferences on the future of Islam…”
— The Economist
“With impressive skill, Mustafa Akyol makes the case in ‘Turkey's Veiled Democracy’…”
— Daniel Pipes
Posted by Web Master at January 30, 2004 8:45 PM
